Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
In the midst of a heated argument in Parliament on amendments to the
Road Transport Act to toughen the penalties for alcohol-related traffic
offences, PAS MP Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh managed to trigger a major
controversy with a deeply offensive remark that the Bible had been
“distorted.”
To suggest that the sacred text of any religious group is distorted
is to cast doubt on its very legitimacy. Such is the arrogance of the
man that despite widespread protests, he has adamantly refused to
apologize or withdraw his remarks.
On the surface of it, it might sound like the inane and insensitive
remarks of a supercilious politician looking for cheap publicity but it
is deeper than that, a symptom of a much greater malaise – the
normalization of racism, the legitimization of bigotry, the
trivialization of intolerance. It is part of a now established culture
that permits the degradation of non-Malays and non-Muslims by reducing
them to inferior status, mere “pendatang” unworthy of equal citizenship,
kafirs to be excluded from senior positions, adversaries to be
contained, followers of flawed religions to be mocked.
If they are not Christian evangelists out to undermine Islam, they
are LTTE or communist sympathizers. If they are not busily working to
divide the country, they are working with Israel to undermine the
nation’s sovereignty. Each new slur adds to the corpus of disinformation
and deceit that further stigmatizes ethnic minorities and justifies
their mistreatment.
Increasingly, non-Malays and non-Muslims are seen as inconvenient, problematic, the unwanted detritus of history that
tarnishes the ‘Malayness’ of the land and diminishes its Islamic
character.
